This invention generally relates to the burnishing of gears, and particularly, to a system for pre-checking the gear at a pre-checking station.
The conventional method of burnishing gears involves processing gears in a burnishing machine which subjects each gear to the same cycle time, burnishing pressure, and processing steps. The processing cycle is set to handle the expected nicked and deteriorated condition of gears after a certain period of use. If a gear is in relatively good condition, it may not need to be processed in a full burnishing cycle, therefore the burnishing machine performs the operation with unneeded time and extra work load. This also causes the relatively good gear to be subjected to unnecessary burnishing, thereby wearing it down unnecessarily and taking up additional maintenance time.
The present invention seeks to solve the problems of the conventional burnishing system by providing a system that will avoid unnecessary burnishing of a gear by pre-checking the condition of the gear before processing.
In accordance with the invention, a gear burnishing system comprises:
(a) a pre-checking station for determining the condition of a gear to be burnished, and providing gear burnishing data representing an amount of burnishing processing needed by the gear in accordance with the determination of the pre-checking station;
(b) a gear burnishing station for receiving the gear and performing a burnishing operation thereon to remove nicks and restore it from deterioration, said gear burnishing station receiving the gear burnishing data and setting parameters for the burnishing operation in accordance therewith.
In a preferred embodiment, the pre-checking station determines the condition of the gear and outputs gear burnishing parameters in one of a plurality of pre-set ranges that the gear condition falls in. In this manner, appropriate gear burnishing parameters can be applied from a limited set of ranges to be carried out by the gear burnishing station.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be explained in the following detailed description of the invention having reference to the appended drawings.